A. S. Fenn

“ Kayll looked grave.
“How old is the baby?” his wife asked.
“Three; but she can’t walk yet. She has never been strong.”
There was something very old and womanly about Amy’s way of saying this that showed plainly how she was her mother’s companion and help, and had lost her childishness in the anxiety of needing money, an anxiety that makes children old before they are grown up.
“And how many more of you are there?” Mrs. Kayll inquired, as her husband seemed to be still thinking.
“There’s Kitty,” she said. “That’s all; mother and Kitty, baby and me. Kitty’s only four.” ”

“ Do you think she likes toiling from morning to night to keep us all respectable and comfortable, or that father likes shouting himself hoarse all day before he can make people buy things for half what they’re worth, or that Madge enjoys sweeping the stairs and washing up the sauce-pans, or even that Jack or I like our work? You’re the only one that doesn’t seem to think it’s possible to do what you ought, whether you like it or not. ”

“ As these thoughts came clearly before him, he stole unnoticed from the room, and went upstairs to sit down in a chair by his own bed and cry as he had hardly cried since he was a baby.
Down-stairs his absence was soon noticed.
“Where’s Jack? He must want his tea,” said Mrs. Kayll.
“I think he went upstairs,” said Madge sighing. “He scarcely stopped to hear about father. He takes things very calmly, does Jack.”
Bessie coloured at Madge’s tone, and became her favourite brother’s champion.
“Jack is too sensible to make a fuss when it won’t do any good. He’s as sorry as anybody else, I know.” ”

“ Jack possessed himself of these, and in two seconds they had gone down Jem’s back, and the culprit had to escape from the room to get away from his brother’s vengeance. Jem dashed after, and the scuffle was soon heard going on overhead.
They were a noisy, merry, poor and unlucky family. Loving one another dearly at the bottom of their hearts, but hiding their love as though it were a crime, quarrelling a good deal, and causing much anxiety to Mrs. Kayll, who used to think sometimes that no woman ever had children so hard to manage and so little time for managing them. ”

“ I should like always to be able to earn money if I worked hard, and to bring it home to you and mother and Kitty. But there isn’t any work to do. I believe the beggars, and the organ-grinders, and the girls selling flowers get ever so much more than we do. Oh, baby, I think it is funny that some people should have more money than they can possibly spend in all their lives, and we shouldn’t have any. ”

“ Bob had learned not only to be strong, and to act for those younger and weaker than himself, but also to be tender and patient with the little ones. Jack had given up amusing himself at the expense of other people. Jem could not often thenceforward deceive himself into the [126] belief that he was doing what was best for others, when he was really only gratifying his own selfish wishes. Edie and Bessie had been taught to make themselves of use in the house, instead of playing or idling while Madge did all the drudgery, and scarcely had a moment in which to rest. ”

“ Kayll sighed wearily, and laid the pillow in its place, taking care that the hole in the much-patched cover should go underneath and out of sight.
“Tiresome boy! He is so unsettled. I’ll talk to him to-night; but it’s not much good when he has once taken a dislike to his work. He’ll never go on with it with any pleasure. I don’t know what would become of us if Jack were the same. Heigh-ho! You children are a constant anxiety to me. We really can’t afford to have Jem at home on our hands just now, when your father’s doing so badly—really I don’t think he ever did so badly before.” ”

“ The next was a soft sultry hazy morning, with thundery-looking clouds lying at first low round the horizon, then here and there slowly rising up in dark threatening masses. The air was heavy and oppressive, and the blacks lay about thickly, or lazily floated [94] down from above. In spite of the unsettled look of the weather, the two little girls and Jack went to church, leaving Madge preparing the potatoes, Mrs. Kayll attending to various domestic duties with the baby on her arm, Bob cleaning knives and forks, and Jem looking on at first one, then another, with his hands in his pockets. ”

“ Ever since she left off going to school, Madge had been nurse, cook, needlewoman, and in part teacher, for in so large a family as this, where no servant could be kept, there was always more than enough employment for both her mother and herself, with keeping the house tidy, everyone’s clothes clean and in good repair, preparing meals and clearing them away, and taking care of the baby. ”

“ Bob walked on with untiring patience, as one hour crept after another and vanished for ever, refusing Madge’s offers to “take baby,” and trying in a whisper to get her, too, to go to bed. Once or twice he sat down until the child began to be restless, when he went on with his steady pacing as regularly as a machine.
[77] It was nearly three when Mrs. Kayll started up, cramped from sleeping in a chair, and looked in a horrified way at the clock.
“You poor children!” she whispered. “Why didn’t you wake me? Poor boy! how tired you look!” ”

“ It is very painful to wait and wait for someone you expect, who does not come. At first you are surprised, then astonished, then you begin to be anxious, after which, if the expected person is one for whom you care much, you become seriously frightened, and imagine every terrible thing that could possibly have come to pass.
So it was with Mrs. Kayll. At three o’clock she fancied her husband must have been run over, or have met with some other accident, and before long she determined to wait no longer, but to go out and look for him. ”

“ Grown exactly like her mother, too, only thinner. Jack, bring her a chair. Mother, isn’t she like what Amy used to be?”
“Very,” said Mrs. Kayll, resting one hand on her husband’s shoulder, and thoughtfully looking at the child. “Dear, dear, how time flies! It must be eight years since we saw her last. Boys, you’ve heard of your father’s cousin Amy. This is her little girl.”
“And where have you dropped from?” Mr. Kayll asked next. “What brings you to us alone at nearly nine o’clock at night?” ”

“ Kayll, who had taken the baby from Bob, losing her nerve, opened the front door and dashed up the steps to the level of the road, calling to the children to follow. Bob and Madge ran after, to find that even on the pavement they were standing in an inch or two of water, while the rain beat on them fiercely.
[99] “Look, mother!” cried Bob excitedly. “It’s rising fast, it’s a foot deep at the very least in our parlour. And oh! what a shame! Our nice dinner will be spoiled!” ”

“ You don’t know when you’ve got a good place.”
“I know when I’ve got a bad one, though.”
“The fact is,” said Jack, who had an uncomfortable [11] habit of telling people the exact truth to their faces, “you are jealous of me because I get five shillings a week, and you only get four.”
Jem turned of an indignant scarlet.
“I’m not! I wouldn’t be in your shoes for a pound a week, if I knew it; so now, then!”
“Then you would be very selfish, for a pound a week would make you able to help mother ever so much—buy your own clothes and all sorts of things.”
“Oh, you boys! you boys!” sighed Mrs. Kayll. ”

“ Then Mr. Kayll asked a hundred questions, which everybody answered at once, so that he found it difficult to understand any of the replies. After which it became his turn to be questioned, and to tell his adventures from the very beginning, describing how he had been taken to the police-cell, while the true thieves got away scot-free.
“And I really think,” he said in conclusion, “that in spite of everything the owner of that shop still believes me to be the real burglar, and a most desperate character into the bargain.” ”

“ There was hardly one among these seven children, unless it were the baby, who was too young to understand, who had not learned more in those few days of disaster than in many months when the course of their life was smoother. Madge had grown wiser than to think again that those who talk the most of their affection, will prove to possess more than those who are less demonstrative, when the trial comes. ”

“ They would all work hard, and if they could earn enough to live upon, surely they need not be unhappy. The troubles of having to pinch, and save, and wear shabby clothes that used once to look too heavy to be borne, seemed so absurdly light, now that she had faced the far worse troubles of nearly losing first one, then another of those she loved more than she herself knew.
Madge had only the two little girls and the baby to share her suspense, for Bob and [117] Jem knew that they could not do better than go to their work ”

“ Madge shook her head.
“It seems not. And mother says she must get a lawyer to defend him, even if we [66] have to live on bread and water; or else there’s no saying what might happen.”
Jack gazed at her silently for a minute. Then he asked:
“Has mother got any money?”
“Yes, but not much. Father gave a lot to those Colesons.”
“H’m. I think we boys ought to be able to earn enough to live on somehow. I can do with very little myself. What’s the matter with baby?” ”

“ Mrs. Kayll did not answer. She was quite overcome by this new misfortune, and scarcely seemed to know what to do. Half mechanically she moved higher up the hill, trying by turning up her dress-skirt over him to shield the baby from the wet, lest, weak as he was after his illness, he should take a bad cold and be worse again. Someone, seeing this, put a big umbrella into her hand, from under which she looked back to see her little home getting every second more and more deeply immersed. ”

“ Kayll said hurriedly, but without raising her voice above a whisper, so that the others slept on undisturbed.
Madge stepped out on to the floor and began to put on her clothes.
“I don’t think you need be so frightened, [56] mother dear,” she said. “So many things might have kept him. Perhaps the baby that the little girl said was so ill, was worse, and father thought it would be cruel to come away. Or the mother may be worse, so that he could not leave the children. Or perhaps there may be a fire somewhere, and father is stopping to see it. You know how fond father is of looking at fires.” ”

“ For Madge was one of those [61] who judge people by their manner and appearance, and are not in the least able to see below the surface.
Then down came Bob and Jem, who had slept the night through, and were quite unprepared to hear that anything uncommon had happened. Madge had to explain again, and after his first surprise was over, Bob’s first thought was for “the mother,” as he called her. ”

“ The evening found no change in the baby. He sat up for a few minutes once or twice, amused by something Bessie brought to attract his attention, but his heavy head soon sank back on his mother’s breast, and he would seldom rouse himself and look round.
Bob came in at his usual time, ate his supper, and then went to Mrs. Kayll with an air of determination.
[76] “We can’t let you knock yourself up, old lady,” he said, firmly but gently taking the sick child from her. “You are making yourself ill. Now, sit in the arm-chair and rest—and Madge, get a pillow to make her more comfortable.” ”

“ Kayll lent her five pounds that he had intended for the use of his own family. With that sum the widow would be able to get on for a while, and he could only hope that she would never be brought quite so low again.
“At least,” he said, as he rose to go, and [44] glanced at Amy as she slept with her head on her tiny sister’s pillow, “you have there a good and helpful little girl, who must be a great comfort to you.”
Mrs. Coleson smiled rather sadly.
“She is of more use than many a grown-up person,” she replied. “Poor Amy! It has been a hard life for her. ”

“ The girls were to stay away from school, as their mother did not want to spare the money for them, and with Jem there as well the house seemed too full. Besides, both girls were so anxious to be of use that Madge, in hurrying to and fro, tumbled over them in all directions. They dusted the rooms, they made the beds, they came constantly to Madge with the question, “What shall we do next?” till she was nearly distracted. Yet she racked her brains every time for [73] something for them to do, knowing that they would be still more trouble if they were idle. One idle person was bad enough! ”

“ Kayll had come to the table, and was cutting bread, and talking to the little girls meanwhile.
“We must try and not make ourselves unhappy,” she said. “There are so many worse troubles than this. All we have to do is to be patient, and to be as careful as possible over every halfpenny. You three must stay away from school for the present, and Jem must contrive to get something to do, and with one thing and another I daresay we shall get on pretty well.”
[67] “But how was it?” cried Jack. ”

“ Kayll asked, suddenly looking up, for he had been staring very hard at the boards of the floor where they were visible through a hole in the carpet.
The little girl coloured faintly.
“Mother used to take sewing, but she has been so ill and so busy nursing baby that she hasn’t been able to do any. We haven’t had any money lately except what I’ve earned, but we can do with very little,” she concluded pathetically. And then guessing at the question that was coming, she added: “I’m a model.” ”